Jean Klein - "The Ease of Being"

A new edition of one of the most consistently popular titles by Dr.Klein, The Ease of Being is a collection of dialogues with seekers at seminars held in Europe and the United States.

Questioner: I’ve come to hear you for the first time, so would you tell me about your philosophy of life?

Jean Klein: Let’s begin by first looking at why you have come here today. As you search for the reason, you may discover a feeling of inner deficiency in yourself, a kind of hunger which you have come here to try to satisfy. So before going on let’s understand that there is really nothing to attain. The moment you are completely convinced of this, there is a halt. All energy previously expended towards some end returns to its origin, and you are brought back to your presence. At first this may be a presence to something, because it is in the nature of the eyes to see and the ears to hear. But when seeing and hearing become free from motive, end and intention, they no longer belong only to the eyes and ears. Unqualified attention is multi-dimensional: the whole body hears, and you may feel, although not in a sensorial way, that hearing and seeing appear in you, in your global presence. In the end even hearing and seeing dissolve into this presence and you are one with it. Ultimately there is no longer a subject who sees nor an object which is seen. There is only oneness.

This is what I come here to communicate. Identity with this presence, this wholeness, this fullness, is meditation, but there is no meditator nor object upon which to meditate. This, then, does not belong to a philosophy; it is your real nature.